Safety swimming belt



Oct. 6,1925- 1,556,339

A. MARENGO ET AL SAFETY SWIMMING BELT Filed. Sept. 17; 1924' INVENTORS Audws t Maren 712, Peter- M 671 311? 0 and Josel) Warez? '0 Q E & ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 6,. 1925.

' UNITE S T 1,556,339 PATENT OFFICE. I

' AUGUST MARENGO, PETERMARENGO, aimpJosnrrr'ivmanneo, or s'roox'ron .f

, CALIFORNIA. r

' SAFETY SWIMMING BELT.

Application filed September 17, 1924. Serial No. 738,165.

I To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, AUcUs'r MAnENoo, PETER MARENGo, and JosErH MARENGO, citizens of the United States, residing at Stockton, county of San Joaquin, State of Cali-f fornia, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Safety Swimming Belts; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference. being had to. .the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference{ marked thereon, which form a part of this application. a

This invention relates to improvements in belts to be used by swimmers as an aid to their efforts and as a safeguard against possible sinking and drowning of the wearer.

The present belt, while for the same purpose, particularly represents an improvement over United States Patent No. 1,478,239, granted to Joseph and August Marengo December 18th, 1923. I

The principal objects of the present invention are to construct the belt in such a manner that the air bladder will be protected against being accidentally punctured;

the belt as a whole will be verylight and readily rolled up into a small compass, and an adequate buoyant areafor all persons is provided without causing the wearer any inconvenience and without interfering in the slightest with any body or arm move ments. The belt is therefore not only useful to beginners, but may be worn by ex ert.

swimmers who play games of various kinds in the water, but who nevertheless may be subject to cramps and the like which render them helpless. i

A further object of the invention is to produce a simple and inexpensive device and yet one which will be exceedingly effective for the purposes for which it is designed.

These objects we accomplished by means of such structure and relative arrangement ,Referring nowinore particularly to the characters of reference on the drawings, the numeral 1 denotes the air-holding bladder ofthe belt, made of a good grade of thin rubber of equal thickness throughout. This bladder is substantially crescent-shaped from end to end, andiwhen inflated butnot distended, is "of curved cross section, the cross sectional area gradually decreasing in size; from the center' toward both ends, where the bladder is practically pointed.

The bladder is permanently enclosed in a casing 2 of canvas orsimilarnon-stretchablebut resilient material, treated with. a

suitable waterproofing agent, and preferably attractively colored and decorated. This casing, while made of a number of pieces in order to simplify manufacture and assembly, forms when finished and the bladder placed therein, a complete and watertight enclosure for the bladder. The shape of the casing is symmetrical to that of the bladder, so that when the latter is inflated, the rubber will seat against the walls of the casing without the bladder being distorted in shape at any point.

The cubic area of the casing is substantially that of the bladder, so that the rubber of the latter will not be stretched when inflated.

The casing is of curved cross section and crescent shaped from end to end, as above intimated.

the casing however is substantially circular in cross section, as shown in Fig. 3.

Air may be blown into the bladder through a standard type of mouth-valve 3, which projects through the casing. A pump is not necessary ininflating the bladder, since very little air pressure is sufiicient to support any person for which a certain size of belt is suitable.

The casing is of such a length that when placed about the back of the waist its ends are substantially opposite to each other at the sides of the wearer.

Elastic or other suitable form of straps 4 are attached to the ends of the casing, one of said straps having a friction-grip or other suitable buckle 5. By this means, the belt may be securely attached to the wearer, While at the same time, a belt of a single size may be used by people of different sizes. lVhile the casing is non-stretchable, it is flexible, so that it will accommodate itself Within reasonable limits to different body shapes, and Will give With any body movements, so that no binding effect on the- Wearer is had. By reason of the fact that the casing tapers down to its ends both horizontally and vertically, it offers no resistance to lateral bending movements of the body at the Waist, nor does it interfere with perfect freedom of movement of the arms.

By making the casing out of canvas, suitably painted, the bladder may be of very thin rubber, since it is thus adequately protected against accidental puncturing, the

' painted canvas offering considerable resistance to the passage of any puncturing means likely to be encountered in the Water.

From the foregoing description it Will be readily seen that We have produced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects of the invention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferred construction of-the device, still in practice such deviations from such details may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit of the invention, as defined by the appended claim.

Having thus described our invention What We claim as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A swimming belt comprising a flexible casing adapted to partially surround a human body, the side of the casing engaging the body having a convex curvature in a vertical plane substantially that of the body adjacent the waist, and an air bladder in the casing.

In testimony whereof \ve affix our sig natures.

AUGUST MARENGO. PETER MARENGO. JOSEPH MARENGO. 

